TSA Tid-bits
by ClaireShepardHKKY
Summary: Little odds and ends from The Shotgun Approach that have no place in the main storyline or I just wrote for fun. The POVs range from Yusuke, to Hiei, to Ettie (and may have some guest stars). They're random, misplaced pieces with no homes. Sometimes sad, sometimes cute, sometimes fun. Enjoy.
1. Coffee

**A/N: hey guys! So I'm doing this just to blow off some steam, my stories are going to be on hiatus for awhile, but I've written some odds and ends here and there, and wanted to share them with all of you!**

 **They have no place in the main fic and there isn't a specific timeline, so feel free to make them up yourself. They're unedited, mostly written on a mobile app, so excuse any mistakes.**

 **This first piece is in Yusuke's POV. Enjoy.**

 **Edit: UGH! I will NEVER use the mobile app to write or upload these again! I went in and fixed it because it was just that obnoxious!**

* * *

Two creams, no sugar.

That was how Ettie took her coffee. Just enough cream of make it light and take an edge off the bitterness. But not enough to ruin the actual flavor of the coffee.

She preferred it heated in a percolator. Or a French press (whatever the hell that was). But she would take instant if that was all that was available.

She drank it out of chipped mugs or porcelain tea cups. She drank it straight from the pot if she needed the extra boost. Or, if she had company, she would set out the old handmade ceramic coffee cups and clutch her hands tightly around them as if she were trying to feel their warmth straight to her bones.

Ettie and coffee often went hand in hand. And her apartment always smelled like it, mixed with the drying herbs that hung from the ceiling and walls of her kitchen.

Stepping into Ettie's apartment was like stepping into another world—a world that was old and unfathomable to someone as young as me.

But it screamed Ettie from every corner and crevice. It spoke more of her character than the fake face she wore everyday or her general appearance ever did. I liked spending time here, it made me feel far less hollow. Being in my empty apartment made my stomach twist in unpleasant ways; the memories there still too thick.

On her days off she went about things like I wasn't even there most of the time. She tended to her herb garden, which sat out on the balcony during spring and summer, and then was gathered up and brought inside during fall and winter. She spent an insane amount of time just drawing, mostly morbid and dark things, and I often wondered if they were things from her old life, but I never asked.

Sometimes I would catch her sketching me...or even one of the guys. Hiei made an appearance in them a lot, but I'd seen her throw those in the trash more than once, as if ashamed of them. Her pictures of Kuwabara were nice and I considered telling him about it once or twice, but figured it was better kept to myself—wouldn't want his ego to inflate to astronomical proportions after all.

She even had a couple of Kurama—eyes shrewd and jawlines sharp.

But it was the ones of people I didn't know that interested me the most—the color splashed pages of ram horned demons, dark creatures with ravens on their arms, and women with wild hair. Bloodied hands clutching primitive weapons and eyes cruel as well as kind.

I kept the questions stuck to the tip of my tongue, knowing if I asked she would hide them away. But I suspected these people were long gone, possibly even dead. And it was best to let them rest, bringing up the past never did anyone any favors.

Though there was one...

Just one I couldn't resist opening my mouth about. "Who's that?"

Ettie was lost in her own little world, as she often was when she was high and in the mood to draw, but my question made her hand freeze. The piece of charcoal she was using tumbled from her fingers and rolled across the paper.

She cleared her throat, the surprise short lived, and picked it back up again.

"No one," she replied, eyes carefully trained on the table.

She continued to draw and for once in my life I shut my mouth and didn't open it again.

But the picture she drew today...it held a little more care to it, a little more detail than most of the others. And the eyes, I realized...

They were just like her's.

It was a woman, older, skin a deep tan just like Ettie's. A cousin? A sister? ...Her mother?

Either way, I was certain they were family.

When she was finished, Ettie carefully tore the page from her sketchbook with blackened fingers, and wandered into the other room. It was about to be put into that box, I knew, that one she rarely pulled out and never let me look inside. The one she kept locked up, the key so well hidden even Hiei couldn't find it.

I never saw her pull the key out or put it away, it was like it opened with pure magic alone. And maybe it did. Nothing would surprise me with her anymore.

Hiei made a plan to break into it sometime ago, but it mysteriously goes missing whenever Ettie isn't around.

It wasn't my place to butt into her life, I told myself this daily, but it still ate at me. I wanted to know everything about her, even the mundane everyday crap. Like how many creams she liked in her stupid coffee.

I guess that's just how I knew, ya know? That I was in love with her.

When Ettie came shuffling back into the kitchen, her shoulders slumped, I stood up without thinking and wrapped her in my arms.

She stiffened up like a board at first, but quickly fell into my embrace, her cold hands pressing into my shoulder blades when she reached up to grip me back. I hugged her tight, afraid to let her go. Afraid she would come to her senses in a second, just like she always did.

But stoned Ettie...she never reacted how I thought she would, no matter how much time I spent around her like this. She liked to keep me on my toes, I guessed. That was okay, I thought. Better on my toes than numb.

The hug lasted a long time, as if she desperately needed the comfort of another's touch. And I was all too happy to give it to her. I wanted to be her friend first...her prospective boyfriend second. I respected her choices, even if her hot and cold attitude annoyed the living crap out of me.

But, that was just her nature...wasn't it?

Loving her didn't give me the right to force her into anything. And loving her alone wasn't enough to make her suddenly love me back.

And I told myself that was okay, it had to be. Just so long as I never lost moments like these...


	2. First Time View

**A/N: This is another little drabble written in Yusuke's POV. Not meant to give away spoilers for the main story, but take from it what you will ;)**

The first time I saw Ettie kiss Hiei I thought my blood would boil. I really thought I would be pissed, that I would fly off the handle and demand a goddamn explanation.

But the first time I saw them kiss none of those things happened.

Because Hiei needed it. Had needed the touch, that sense of acceptance, of understanding. His hands were bloodied and his face was near unrecognizable and one of his eyes was swollen shut. And fuck, I wasn't lookin' much better.

If it wasn't for Ettie we'd both be goners. Maybe. No...definitely.

Her defensive skills were something else.

Me and Hiei...we were just a couple of brutes. We used our fists for talkin' and the more bloodshed the better. I didn't know a goddamn thing about defense.

Hiei thought his speed was good enough most of the time.

But sometimes he was just as much an idiot as I was. And this was one of those times.

I was laying in a pool of my own blood. Ettie'd done something to patch me up, healed me enough so I wasn't gonna bleed out. But I couldn't move, not much. I managed to roll onto my side so I could watch the two of them.

Hiei wasn't doing so good. He was exhausted from being desperate enough to use his fuckin' dragon because we'd fucked up and underestimated our opponent. It was a last ditch effort, one that might of worked if they didn't have another guy lying in wait. Wasn't often we ended up royally screwed these days. And it was a huge blow to the old ego.

Hiei was struggling with Ettie, pissed and yelling about some shit I couldn't even understand. Some language I didn't know. Something he'd picked up somewhere in demon world when he was a kid.

He wrapped his bloody hands around her face, smearing red handprints into her tanned skin, screaming at her. But Ettie wasn't afraid of him, never had been.

I was almost positive she kissed him just to shut him the hell up. But the guy melted into it, and I mean fucking melted.

He fell back to the ground, dragged her with him, and I don't think I'd ever seen a kiss as hot as this one.

I was sure if I had any energy left I would have popped a goddamn stiffy, I shit you not.

I knew when he finally passed out cause his hands flopped to the ground like dead weights and Ettie gave him a single soft kiss as if saying goodnight. Then she went about her business, her powers more in tune with his than anyone I'd ever met. She healed him up in no time flat. Faster than even Yukina could have done.

But that was the thing about Ettie, her powers worked in weird ways, and she could use other's powers against them if they coincided with one of her elements and because she could mix them...well, you got the picture.

A force to be reckoned with.

But here she was, using it for good. The exact opposite of most of the demons I'd met over the years, but not all. She wasn't an exception to the rule, just a really awesome one.

And I needed to admit...a lot like how Hiei could have been if he didn't end up so bitter and full of hatred. But he was changing, thanks to her, and it was better late than never.

I supposed I should give myself some credit too. I always knew the little bastard wasn't as much of a menace as he made himself out to be.

I was chuckling to myself by the time Ettie finished up with him, hefting the not so little anymore fire demon onto her back and making her way back towards me. She offered me a hand up and I took it with a grin, letting her throw my arm around her shoulders.

"Thought you two were gonna bang there for a minute," I joked.

"Don't be ridiculous. He wouldn't let me heal him, it was merely to get him to stay quiet."

Just as I'd expected. But I knew there was more to it...and that was pretty okay too.

"Thanks...for saving us," I said.

And Ettie just nodded, hefting Hiei a little higher on her back even though she was so short his toes nearly touched the ground anyway.

"No problem. I love you guys."

My chest tightened and I was quick to blame it on the pain. As family, I reminded myself, just as family. Not how I wanted. She'd been clear about that.

"Yeah...we love you too, Ettie."


	3. Something Else

**A/N: This is a little Hiei POV drabble. Btw, I went back and fixed the first one because uploading anything on this site's crappy mobile app was a huge mistake xD Also, this scene I planned to have just a few paragraphs from this in the main fic, but I have yet to find where to put them, so I guess you can read some of it now.**

 **I do this a lot, write random little scenes and desperately want to find a home for them, but more often than not they get thrown into the pit of no return.**

She was acting strange.

That was the first thing I noticed. The second was a bit more complicated.

I could not outright pinpoint what was so strange, I just knew it wasn't like her. And how I knew was where it got complicated.

I could pretend it was the drugs. That was always an easy excuse. But this time I knew it was more than that.

"What...did you just say?"

Her glassy eyes rolled towards the back of her head. "For the love of the gods..." she mumbled. And then louder, "I said would you like to go out for a drink."

"A drink?"

"Yes, like that thing humans often do. A date?"

I blanched, choking on the coffee she'd been kind enough to pour me when I'd arrived. "You've fried your brain one too many times."

"It's an honest question and I would like an honest answer."

"No."

Her face fell but she nodded graciously, keeping her gaze hooded. "I accept your answer. Would you like some more coffee?"

I shook my head. "That's it? No whining or entreaties?"

"I cannot force you to do something you find unpleasant," she said as she rose to refill my mug even though it wasn't nearly empty.

"You had no qualms when you cornered me into taking that foolish EMT course."

"Because that was beneficial for you, this I can't rightly say would help you in any manner."

She sat back down across from me, stirring the two dollops of cream she always placed in her coffee. I would almost say her eyes seemed...forlorn, but I didn't want to read too far into it.

"I avoid pointless human endeavors as if they are the plague. I do not understand why you do not do the same."

She smiled this time, but it was a slip of a thing, sad and broken. Her eyes turned distant and empty, that gaze I so despised. "Yes, but I have no interest in being a demon, just as you have none in being human."

I scoffed, aghast she would even admit to such an atrocity. It was disgraceful. But all her behaviors were, in my eyes.

"Our race is better off without you."

"So it would seem," she said.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room then, the solitary sound of her spoon clinking against her mug grated on my nerves. Entranced, I watched it go round and round, until it created something of a vortex in its center.

I reached out and grabbed her hand, putting a stop to it.

She looked up with eyes so devoid of life I felt sick.

"Stop it," I hissed. "This guise you put on to hide how you feel is degrading."

"According to you everything I do is degrading or disgraceful. It is better to feel nothing than to feel everything, wouldn't you agree?"

I dropped her hand. The spoon clacked against the edge of the mug.

The grimace on my face surely belied the words that came out of my mouth. But I knew they needed to be said...that this was...important.

"You are many things Etternia—you are a good paramedic, an adept strategist. You are strong and capable. And, yes, also a conundrum of epic proportions. A drug addict is the least of what you are."

Her eyes flicked away, towards the wall. She did not smile or even acknowledge the words I spoke, though I knew she heard them. Her gaze was a little less hollow now.

"I won't apologize," I said.

"I don't expect you to apologize for the truth."

What a petulant child...

"Fine. Let's go on this..." I sneered, disgusted, "date."

She smirked at me, eyes alight finally. "Don't strain yourself," she said. And then she pulled out her mobile phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling Yusuke. He should come too."

I sighed, defeated. At least it would be marginally more entertaining with the both of them.

"Fine, get on with it."

I listened to her chat with him for a time, before her voice became the sound that lulled me off into slumber, head cradled within my arms folded across the table. The smell of hot coffee and cream and the medicinal herbs hung from her ceiling to dry added to my sleep addled brain, and soon dragged me away.

I never even considered how big a mistake falling asleep in front of an enemy could become.

And later I was left to wonder when Etternia turned from enemy...to something...else.

When I next awoke it was to find a blanket thrown over my shoulders...and Ettie across from me, asleep as well, her face far more peaceful than it ever was awake.

I rose, sweeping the blanket off and then over her shoulders. I left my hands resting there for a time, feeling the rise and fall of each of her breaths.

How easy I could steal the life from her.

But it was Etternia that taught me there was beauty in many of the living things in this world and the next. That I should not take them for granted.

On her next inhale...I leaned forward and placed a parting kiss against the crown of her head.

She was wrong. There was not beauty in all living things.

But there was beauty within her.

Even if she did not see it herself.


	4. Kurama's Day Out

**Kurama's Day Out**

 **A/N: This was written for the YYH Secret Santa on facebook! My match was Shareese!**

—So, I wish I had the confidence to write another person's OC, but I don't, so here is a little Christmas blurb featuring Kurama and Ettie. Sorry Shareese, that I wasn't able to write about your OC, but I hope you'll like this all the same.

Quick one-shot written from Kurama's POV (a first for me xD). Enjoy! 

**. . .**

Etternia was certainly not the oddest of demons I'd ever met. Her drug habit was not astonishing nor was it all that irksome. At first, I considered it a form of disgusting self-indulgence. But upon learning more about her, I discovered that was far from the truth.

Everyone had their vices. And I was not one to judge.

I turned a blind eye to her habit, much to Hiei's chagrin, Kuwabara's disbelief, and Yusuke's indifference. But it was...nice...to have someone like her around. Another who enjoyed plants, that was.

Her addiction aside, she was quite adept at botany. Mostly with plants of the medicinal variety but she knew plenty on poisons and their antidotes as well.

And then there were the seeds.

Seeds, even as Youko, that had never graced my hands. Seeds from a land I had not seen or stepped foot upon.

Priceless for someone such as me.

To the untrained eye, the herbs she grew on her balcony every spring and summer, looked just like any other—from a distance. Get up close and you could see they were plants only native to the Makai.

Dangerous, I'd thought at first, to have them here where their seeds could potentially spread. But her care for them was meticulous, no different than how I would care for mine.

What she lacked was the ability to make them grow at spontaneous rates. And, that was where I came in.

In exchange for some of her rarer samples, I would tend to her plant life so it grew quicker and was useable in a shorter time frame.

In the end, our exchanges became like sordid drug deals, passing off little packets of seeds unbeknownst to the rest of our friends. She gave me the plants from her lands and I gave her seeds I figured would be of use to her. Every time I made a trip to the Makai I made it a point to bring back at least a single seed.

And although it wasn't necessarily a secret between us, neither of us bothered to tell the others. I was certain Hiei would be mildly annoyed and Yusuke would be angry I hadn't told him before he inevitably got over it.

I supposed that was how I found myself in such a predicament. And also how I knew that both Yusuke and Hiei would be sorely disappointed in me...for lack of a better term.

Etternia and I chose to meet up at the coffee shop. She had a delivery to make (another factor of her life she had somehow managed to keep from both Hiei and Yusuke, much to my shock) to a demon in the slums. I figured it would be...ungentlemanly of me to let her go alone. So I offered to accompany her after our usual exchanging of specimens.

I regretted that choice less than an hour afterwards.

What should have been an easy drop off of the medicines she made and doled out to the demons who inhabited the slums, the ones unable or unwilling to receive proper medical care, turned into a nightmare.

How was I to know the demon she planned to deliver to today was an old enemy of mine?

"How...unbecoming," I said with distaste, referring to my current state and Etternia's unusually furious face.

"Unbecoming? That's all you have to say on this?"

I would have shrugged...if the use of my arms was a possibility. Perhaps this would be a lesson to her that helping the more unfortunate was not always the best course of action. These demons lived here for a reason—they hid away like rats because that was exactly what they were. Dirty, disease ridden nuisances.

I did not think my face could be anymore unimpressed.

"Stop looking at me like that. If you hadn't insisted on coming with me this never would have happened."

"Next time I shall allow you to get captured on your own then," I said.

"Oh, how sorry I am to have inconvenienced you," she snapped.

I was starting to see why Yusuke and Hiei found her presence more than just tolerable. Etternia was witty and smart. But in this particular case she'd made such a foolish decision. Her nonviolent tactics would not get her far. And she only managed to drag me down with her.

The seed still clutched in my palm, hidden, grew slowly. A simple vine, but one I could manipulate into any shape I wished. The handcuffs on my wrists came undone with a click and fell to the floor. It freed my hands, but I was still bound with rope, my arms so tightly tied behind my back it was painful.

A second later Etternia broke her bonds into shattering crystal shards. She stood over me, her eyes rather smug but the rest of her face impassive.

"Would you like some help?"

I glared at her.

"Perhaps I should leave you like that a bit longer."

The knots at my back were complicated, but nothing I couldn't handle on my own given enough time. A petty part of myself wanted to refuse her assistance, but the sound of footsteps outside the bunker door had me hurrying her along.

This time, I would not let Etternia try to "talk it out" with the succubus whose name I could no longer remember. I would put an end to it—my way.

She froze the ropes, the chill sending a shock down my spine, and the feeling of foreign youki making me tamper down my natural instinct to defend against it. Even still, I felt my lips turn back into a snarl and gritted my teeth. I must only bare it for a moment. She would not harm me and risk her relationships with Yusuke and Hiei, that much I knew.

"Don't kill her," she murmured, as the ropes crackled and fell to broken pieces around me.

I stood to my full height, a staggering difference when compared to Etternia, and rubbed at the rawness around my wrists, stretching and popping my joints back into place.

"If she will not back down, I will not allow our capture twice."

"What did you do to her to make her so angry?"

I brushed my clothing off, smoothing them until they were nearly immaculate once more. "I believe she is a vexed lover," I said.

Etternia hummed, thoughtful. "Well, she does seem your type."

"And what, pray tell, would my type be exactly?"

I could hear the smile in her tone when she replied, "Tall, brunette, and strong."

"What are you implying?"

"You are quite smart, Kurama. I'm sure you can figure that out on your own."

"You are more observant than I've given you credit for."

The lock clicked in the bunker's doorway and it was thrown open with a loud bang.

"Ah, I see she's brought some...friends," Etternia said.

All I could do was sigh. What a mess I'd found myself in. I must remember not to accompany her on anymore deliveries. She was more than capable of taking care of herself.

The ensuing fight, made more difficult by the fact I couldn't use lethal force, was short lived. My ex-lover only managed to get the jump on us before because of Etternia's insistence that she could be reasoned with. This time, I would not take that chance.

I tied the last of the vines tight around the woman's wrists, the rest of her cohorts unconscious and bound, and said, "There, a taste of your own medicine."

She swore, her voice heavily accented, and bared her rather sharp teeth at me.

"I should have killed you years ago, Youko," she snarled.

"You could have tried," I said, with a smile full of venom. "You would not have succeeded."

She turned away, letting her long hair cover her face. I smelt salt a moment later but felt no sympathy. I was notorious as a thief and a philanderer back in my days as the Youko. If I took a lover it was never for long. She was the fool that ended up hurt when she should have known better.

"Come, Kurama. You've done enough."

I turned to Etternia, ready to snap something rather unpleasant, until I saw her face. She was a little scraped up, a small line across her cheek crusted with already drying blood, but...

There was a glint in her gaze. Something dangerous lurking behind her eyes.

I conceded, if only because I was more curious about her reaction than anything else. She led the way out of her bunker and slammed the door closed behind us. She froze the outside of it over, just in case.

"I only added enough youki to keep the ice there for an hour or two. I'm sure they'll have managed to free themselves by then."

She left the packet of medicine, our original intention here, out in plain view. Charitable right to the end.

"I would like to pick your mind," I said, "the way you acted just now..."

Her back was to me when she said, "I...have little respect for women who let men make them fall apart."

"It sounds as if you are talking more from your own experiences."

She had no reply to that, merely began to walk away, as if I'd never spoken. I caught up to her quickly, grabbing her arm so I could swing her around. Her face was back in that impassive mask it was normally kept in.

"I'm sorry you became involved in this," she said.

"I..." What I originally wanted to say got stuck on the tip of my tongue. My anger evaporated.

It wasn't Etternia's fault. It was mine. I was the one who hurt that woman, no matter how long ago in the past it was. My annoyance over being captured and the weariness in my bones from dealing with not only my own work, but much of Yusuke's as well, made me react poorly.

"No," I said. "Next time allow me to accompany you again."

She nodded, eyes guarded. "Alright," she said.

"And thank you again, for the seeds."

"Likewise."

An awkward silence fell over us and I cleared my throat, holding out an arm, "Shall we?"

I walked Etternia back to her building, the trek feeling as if it took much longer than it actually did.

And my exasperation only grew when we reached her home and found Yusuke leaning against the brick and mortar, angrily jabbing at his phone with one hand as he tried to send a text, a cigarette clutched between the fingers of the other. He took a drag, not paying the slightest bit of attention to his surroundings.

Rather injudicious of a king.

When he eventually looked up from his phone and saw us standing there, his mouth gaped for a moment and then he shook his head.

"Do I even wanna know?"

"Perhaps not," I replied. "I will meet up with you later, to go over some things."

Yusuke's answering nod was absentminded, as his eyes were only for Etternia now. When she reached him he rubbed a thumb across the wound on her cheek, sucking the bloody digit into his mouth afterwards with nary a thought about it.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you later man," Yusuke said with a short wave goodbye.

They fell into step with each other, in such perfect sync that I lingered awhile just to watch as they entered the building. Yusuke was clearly worried for her...but his attachment to her was...ill-advised.

Ah well...nothing to be done of it if he was determined. And, I thought as I reached into my pocket to pat the seed packet, she did not come without her uses.

Maybe...

Maybe she would grow to be just as attached. And the shadows she hid behind would pull back enough for us to see who she truly was.

Until then...all we could do was practice caution.

I took one last look at the door they had disappeared behind, slipped my hands into my pockets, and went on my way.

A smile curled my lips.

It was nice...to have someone just as conniving and secretive...as I was.

So long as that understanding was always there, she could do as she pleased. Until the day she hurt one of them.

Then god help her soul. 


	5. Stone Cold Sober (NSFW)

**Stone Cold Sober**

 **A/N: This was a smutty thing I wrote last week and really fell in love with and considered putting it into the main story. I may still do that (and if the time comes, it will be deleted from here) but for now, you guys get to enjoy this because some jackwagon anon forced me into revealing the fact the main fic is a—you guessed it—one hundred percent POLY SHIP.**

 **This whole thing was inspired by WistfulSin and her awesome Dragon's Keep AU!**

 **Enjoy the smut!**

Sex with Hiei was entirely different than it was with Yusuke.

It wasn't often the fire demon came to me alone. And it was even more rare for him to show up completely sober. He acted as if touching me was something sinful and he needed the added boost from liquid courage. It hurt. It hurt after all this time for him to do that.

But tonight...it was different. New.

He came sober, in pain, and vulnerable. All things he avoided when it came to me.

I figured at first it was just a routine need for healing that he couldn't find anywhere else at this hour. Yusuke was asleep in bed, just in the other room, Hiei probably felt it was best to come here.

I stripped him of his bloodied shirt, using a scissor to cut it away so he wouldn't have to lift his arms. The wound beneath was grotesque, skin shredded with dirt and various other debris embedded in it. It bled steadily, leaving a trail of red on my floor. He picked off more than he could chew, it seemed, but I did not voice my thoughts. I got to work cleaning out the injury, careful not to hurt him, but trying to work fast. For his credit, he did not once wince or complain, just let me work in silence.

Once I was sure it was as clean as I could possibly get it—given the choice of Hiei to keep the light low and my only options for tools being needle nose pliers, dishcloths, and a spray bottle I used to water my herbs—I pressed my hands to his chest and stomach, a palm on either side of the wound.

The soft shimmering glow of my youki brightened the room and the torn skin began to knit closed.

Half-way through his breath hitched. The first sound he'd made all night. His hands moved from his sides, where he'd kept his fists clenched the entire time, and moved up my arms to grip my shoulders.

I raised an eyebrow, but did not turn from my work.

"Kiss me, Etternia."

My youki brightened, a brief increase in its natural glow, and then evened back out. "What? You are still gravely wounded. Now is not the time for nonsense."

But...even though it was not so much him asking, it was also not demanded. It was more as if...he was hopeful that I would by him requesting it of me. I was not sure how to respond. The few quick trysts we enjoyed before were all done in haste, with minimal talking, and more out of a sudden desperation to feel someone else's skin besides our own.

Was this one of those times too?

"Etternia..." he murmured again and the way he said my name...it sent chills down my spine. "Kiss me."

I finally looked up, fully intent on giving him a lecture, when I caught his gaze. His eyes were hooded, the red turned so dark it almost looked black, and they shone with such need I forgot how to breathe for several seconds.

Why this sudden turn? Was there something in the wound? An aphrodisiac...some kind of drug or poison that affected the brain?

"Were you drugged?" I asked, because this was important. A poison I could make an antidote for; even for an aphrodisiac. But a drug worked differently and all we could do was wait it out.

"No," he growled. "I was careless, but not that careless."

"Then why...?"

"Must there be a reason?"

"Yes," I said bluntly. "You are acting strange."

"I've been gone for weeks tracking that rogue demon for Mukuro. I...missed your presence. Is that truly so shocking?"

"Yes," I repeated, trying much harder now to concentrate on healing his wound.

"Etternia," he growled and I ignored him, pressing my hands in hard enough to make him grunt in pain. "Ettie," he ground out. "Look at me."

He never used the abbreviated version of my name. Never.

I accidentally froze over a sizable portion of his chest and stomach, my shock causing me to lose some of my control. I switched quickly back to my healing energy, even as Hiei raised his body temperature to remove the layer of frost. It melted, leaving little droplets of water that I was sorely tempted to lick off his abs.

"You always come to me drunk," I said.

"Not always."

"Ninety-nine percent of the time."

"I will not apologize."

"No of course not," I sneered, digging the tips of my fingers into his skin, half hoping my nails would elongate into claws. "I'm far too beneath you for such a courtesy."

My hands were wrenched away from him in a grip that bruised. He pulled them up to his face and placed a kiss on each palm, before cupping his cheeks with them. His eyes were closed, lips slightly parted. He looked...almost sad. Wistful.

"I do not feel that way. You do not understand," he said, lips brushing against the inside of my wrist.

"Help me to, then."

A growl rumbled through his chest, one born of irritation. "Do not make me say it."

"I cannot make you do anything, Hiei. That has been quite clear for some time now."

I drew my hands away, sliding them from beneath Hiei's burning hands, and returning them to my work. The wound was so jagged and deep it would take some time to fix. His arms fell slack at his sides and his breath turned ragged, though he tried hard to hide it.

My energy shined over his skin, fresh and cold, the muscles of his stomach contracting at the feeling. I traced a scar with the tip of a finger, trying to guess how the wound was caused—a blade or something else equally sharp, I assumed. His skin, covered in scars as it was, seemed like a reflection of my own. Battle hardened. A blade in our hands as soon as we were old enough to hold it up.

"Etternia..."

The way he spoke my name this time made me lift my head. I stared up at him through my lashes, wondering at the way his eyes glinted, at the way his lips slightly parted when I looked at him.

I could not read his gaze. I did not understand it.

I was not sure if I wanted to.

He gripped my chin, running the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. And then he knelt until we were face to face.

I protested, reaching for the still healing wound, but he grabbed my wrist with his free hand and then tugged me forward until I fell into him. His skin was hot, a little too hot for it to be comfortable, so I dropped my body temperature a few degrees. He hissed at the sensation, but did not let me go.

He pressed his face into my hair and took a deep breath. When he exhaled it tickled the sensitive skin of my neck. And all I could do was stay frozen, still kneeling on my kitchen floor, at a loss for words.

"Do you find my touch repulsive?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper.

I wanted to laugh. "Of course not. I would not let you get so close if that were true."

"Then allow me to have this, Etternia." His arms tightened around me, as if afraid I would run. "Allow me to show you that the fool in the other room is not the only man who can make you fall apart."

"What are you saying?"

"I am saying that I plan to take you right here, on your kitchen floor, and watch as you shatter into pieces beneath me."

My breath hitched and I felt a flush heat my cheeks. For the first time in a long time, I regretted not wearing many clothes to bed. It would have been a great pleasure to watch Hiei peal them off of me.

I pulled his arms away from me, pushing back until he let me go. I placed a palm against his chest and looked him straight in the eye. "Then you must answer my question."

His jaw tightened and his gaze flicked away, towards the candle that gave off a soft glow from the kitchen table. "You know the answer."

"If I did, I would not ask."

He snarled and lunged forward, pinning me to the floor, his hands pressed into my shoulders. But I was not afraid or intimidated. I paid no mind to the curl of his lips or the nails that dug into my flesh. I craned upwards, pressing my lips to the corner of his mouth, trailing kisses along his jawline until his hold loosened...and then fell away completely.

I nipped at his ear lobe, pressing a kiss just behind it, and was rewarded with a soft groan.

My lips trailed down, towards the hollow between neck and shoulder, then towards his collar bone. I cooled his overheated skin with a breath...and by then he was practically putty. He rocked back, until I could rise from the floor and kneel between his legs.

I never broke contact with his skin, letting my fingers trail over his chest and stomach, dipping below the waistband of his pants. The muscles there twitched and he groaned again. But I would not give in so easily.

I kissed back up his jaw and then took his bottom lip between my teeth, refusing to kiss him.

"Stop teasing," he said, though it did not sound like he meant it.

I kneaded the hardness between his legs over his pants, enjoying when he threw his head back and let his eyes slip closed, a breathy moan falling from his lips. His hands curled into fists against the linoleum, fingernails biting into his palms.

"You _are_ drugged, aren't you?" I asked again. He was never so receptive. But then again, this was the first time he'd allowed me to touch him like this.

"I am not drugged," he ground out from between clenched teeth. "I have never been more sober."

"Then why?"

His heavy lidded eyes slipped open and it felt as if they were boring deep, deep down into some hidden part of me only he could see. They burned; smoldered with a heat hotter than any flame. I heard someone gasp and belatedly realized it came from my own mouth.

He drew my hand away from his sex and sat up fully, so he could concentrate. "I come to you drunk...because I do not want to face what I feel when I'm with you like this. It is easy to ignore...when I am not touching you...when I do not see you fall to pieces just from my touch."

"You show me even less emotion while drunk. If that is possible. So I still do not understand."

He dragged a hand down his face, clearly frustrated in more ways than one. "Because while drunk I do not think about it. I only think of how much I want you. And then I take what I want."

"What has made you change that habit tonight, then?"

"I could have dealt with the wound myself, Etternia. I came only for you. I came because I wanted to."

"You couldn't have healed that yourself, are you insane? You would have bled to de—"

"Shut up, idiot," he said, cutting me off, before dipping to press a kiss to my lips.

It began soft and hesitant. Then I angled my head just right and he buried a hand in the hair at the back of my head, fingers scraping against my scalp. His tongue slipped between my lips and I felt my legs tremble.

He broke away, leaving bruising kisses down my neck and collar, his free hand skimming across the flesh of my thighs and up to my waist, slipping beneath the long shirt I wore to bed. He pushed it up, over my breasts, bunching it up around my throat.

Hiei had an incredibly sinful tongue, as I'd learned. But tonight, with the lack of drunkenness, there was an added skill behind it.

He pressed his lips to my breast, taking a nipple between his teeth and rolling his tongue over it. My back arched into his touch and his hand fisted in my hair, pulling. He bit down, smirking when I cried out just before I could clap a hand to my mouth.

He released me with a soft pop, gaze burning. "So sensitive..." He leaned forward, nuzzling into my throat. "But do not wake the detective. I am in no mood to share tonight."

He bit my earlobe, dragging his lips across my cheek so he could kiss me again, putting so much hunger into it that if I were standing, my knees surely would have given out. He cupped my breast, rolling the nipple between his forefinger and thumb. I moaned into the kiss and he drank up the sound, pressing his lips against mine with force, the feeling of our teeth clacking together making me wish he'd embed them somewhere else.

"Lay down," he murmured against my lips. "Take off your shirt."

I did not obey. Part of me hoped it would enrage him, but there was something I needed to do first. Something I could no longer deny or ignore.

I reached for his pants, not stopping to take the belts off and just snapping them instead. They fell open, the coarse material of his slacks along with them, and I could see even in the low light how hard he was for me.

Hiei's penis was red and angry, the tip weeping, and I couldn't help trailing my fingers through the fluid, bringing them back to my mouth so I could suck the digits clean.

"Let me touch you," I whispered.

He never did. Never allowed it any time before. He would gather my wrists in bruising hands and pin them above my head and fuck me until I was numb, but he would never let me touch him in return.

Hiei sat back on his hunches and eyed me, gripping his penis and giving it a couple of firm strokes. He groaned, staring at me with heavy lidded eyes, and then nodded.

I crawled towards him, pulling his fingers from his cock one by one, so I could replace them with my own. At the first touch of bare skin on skin, he threw his head back against the kitchen cabinets and bucked up into my hand. Touch starved. That was what he was. And I fully planned to remedy that tonight.

"Look at me," I said, squeezing him until his eyes rolled back towards me. The pupil nearly swallowed them whole and I reveled in the fact I was the cause of it.

I wet my lips, casting him a mischievous smile, before I dipped down and pressed them against the head of his cock. He jolted, surprised, his hands leaving the floor to tug at my hair. He nearly lost his balance and I chuckled, the vibration making his cock twitch.

Once I was sure he would not panic, I sucked in the head of his cock, running my tongue over his weeping slit and loving the sound of his breathy sighs and the whines he let get stuck in the back of his throat.

I used one hand to steady myself, gripping his thigh, and the other want back to press against the almost healed wound at his stomach.

He never noticed what I was doing, as I chose that moment to swallow him whole, taking him straight to the base.

His head smashed into the kitchen cabinets again and I dug my nails into his thigh as a warning. Yusuke was a heavy sleeper but if we got much louder he would come to investigate. And I was not particularly fond of the idea of being interrupted either.

I healed him as I blew him, feeling when he grew more desperate and closer to his release. A vein pulsed at the underside of his cock and he released a drawn out groan as he came, not bothering to warn me. And I did not care, as I swallowed him again, drinking down his release, taking it all and then sucking him clean.

I released him with a wet pop and looked at my handiwork. His wound was healed, though it scarred. And he was a mess, covered in sweat and panting, his pupils blown, chest heaving with exertion.

"I rather like this look on you," I said, feeling heat pool in my stomach and wetness between my legs.

He was gorgeous. His flushed skin and chiseled physique and the strength held within such a compact body—it made me weak.

And it was with great pleasure when I noticed his cock was still rock hard.

"It appears my mouth was not enough to satisfy you," I murmured, casting a sultry gaze across him. "What shall we do to fix that?"

He rocked forward on the balls of his feet, one hand gripping my hip to keep us both steady and the other sinking between my legs. I was already dripping wet and Hiei ran the knuckle of his forefinger up and down my sex, his thumb brushing the nub at the apex of my thighs. Teasing.

I was already so aroused that even that slight touch felt like too much and not enough.

I leaned forward, pressing my forehead into his shoulder and trying to stay balanced on the balls of my feet, crouched the way I was, letting him play with me till he decided he was satisfied with the teasing. I refused to beg him.

As if he sensed my resolve, he did everything within his power to break it.

He dug his knuckle between my folds, pushing the digit in with a single, slow stroke, before pulling it back out and returning to his previous gentle strokes. Too gentle.

I rolled my hips, trying to grind down on his hand, needing the friction no matter how slight.

He tsked, stopping his movements entirely. "Keep that up and I'll leave you wanting," he said, his voice deep, barely containing the hidden darkness behind it. It made my legs tremble beneath me.

I felt a whine building in my throat that I did everything to suppress. Cruel. He was being cruel.

"Do you understand?" he breathed, turning to drag his teeth down the side of my neck.

All I could do was nod, afraid if I spoke I would say something I would regret.

"Good," he said, voice rumbling through his chest. "Now stay still."

He returned to rubbing his knuckle up and down my sex, and I throbbed, gritting my teeth in a poor attempt to bear it.

When he finally took the slightest mercy on me, I was already a panting mess. He slipped a finger between my folds and created a slow but steady rhythm, his thumb doing lazy circles around my clit.

"This..." he whispered, "this is why I wanted to do this sober. Wanted to watch and remember you exactly as you are now."

I groaned, unable to hold back the sound, and buried my face in the crook of his shoulder.

"How long can you keep this position? How long before your legs give out beneath you and you're begging for me to take you?"

The sound of his voice and the movement of his fingers were slowly driving me mad. I needed more. More of him, more of everything.

But I would not beg.

He would have to do much better than that.

I used my rather advantageous position to nip and suck at his neck, leaving behind marks that satisfied the more animalistic side of myself. I drew wet lips over his jaw and sucked his earlobe between my teeth, a facsimile of what I'd done to him not long before.

I heard him growl and he slipped a second finger inside me, pumping them in and out quicker now. I couldn't help the breathy laugh that was fast swallowed up by a moan when he dug his thumb into my clit, slick with my fluids.

"You're so wet," he groaned. "I want to hear you say my name when you come. I want you to scream it loud enough that it wakes up the king and he finds you in here with me, fucked so thoroughly that you can't even get up from the floor."

"It is going to take a lot more than a couple of fingers, then," I growled, snapping sharp teeth at his neck and biting down hard enough to bruise.

The sound he released was caught between a strangled moan and a snarl. I found myself thrown to the floor, Hiei's angry eyes above me, making my blood rush through my veins with excitement.

I smiled up at him, challenging.

He stood to his full height and I could say with certainty that I had never seen a man make the act of removing his pants look so menacing. The fact it aroused me even further made me whimper.

He tossed them aside, glaring at me, a hand at his throat where I'd bitten him. "I will be sure to put you in your place," he hissed. "Bend your knees."

I hesitated, but one look from him had me obeying, bending them up, keeping my feet flat on the floor. He nudged my legs apart with his feet, pushing them to where he wanted them. Then he stopped, casting a heated gaze from the tips of my toes up to the crown of my head.

I was spread out before him, bare and wanting, a sheen of sweat covering my flesh.

And yet he still did nothing, just stood over me with a face like stone, his erection so stiff it strained up towards his navel. As I watched, a thick drop of precum leaked from the tip and slid down the side of his cock.

"Tell me you want me to fuck you, Etternia."

His words made me swallow, my saliva thick. I wanted to suck him off again but knew he would not allow it at this point.

When I said nothing, his lips curled back into a snarl and he knelt between my legs, taking his sex in hand and rubbing the slick head against my clit.

My back arched off the floor, hips bucking with the need of more friction, but he was quick to pull away.

His hand shot forward, gripping my face in a bruising hold. He crushed his mouth to mine, forcing his tongue between my lips so he could run it across my teeth. I reveled in his roughness, straining up towards him, wanting to feel his skin pressed against me.

He went back to rubbing the head of his cock against my sex, using the same motions he'd done previously with his knuckle. It drove me crazy, unable to push back, to feel him inside me. He kept me firmly pinned to the floor and though I knew I could give as well as I received, that I could choose to fight him, it wasn't what I wanted.

I wanted Hiei to give himself up to me so completely that he wouldn't ever dare come to fuck me drunk again. That he would never have sex as good as this any other way. I wanted him completely open, falling apart along with me.

Hiei buried his face in my neck, his chest heaving from the self-restraint he was using to hold himself back.

But if this was a battle of wills, he was a fool to think I would be the one to lose.

"Tell me you want me, Etternia," he said. "I want to hear you say it."

"Want to hear it...? Or need?" I asked, not expecting an answer.

I reached between us, hand coming down to cup his testicles, rolling them between my fingers. He bucked into me and snarled, snatching my hand away and pinning it above my head, threading our fingers together.

"Say it," he repeated, his voice losing the careful calm he'd held onto so fiercely until now. "Say you want me."

I wrapped my legs around his hips and I tugged at his hair until he lifted his face so I could kiss him, loving when my bottom lip caught on his fangs.

What he was asking for was simple. And I couldn't deny him any longer. The look in his eyes made something in my chest clench. It was more than longing or lust. It was something much deeper than that.

I pulled back just enough that our lips were still barely touching...and made sure he felt every word. "I will always want you, Hiei. Not just like this, but for the person you are. There is nothing for you to fear."

It was with a hint of satisfaction that even with my confession he still had not broken me. And I knew, just from the way he breathed my name afterwards, that he would not be able to hold out any longer.

He sunk into me, the stretch a big difference from his fingers, but not unpleasant or uncomfortable. It did not take long for him to reach the hilt and then he stayed there, catching his breath as if the control it took to stay still was almost too much for him to handle.

Sweat dripped down his chest and his hair was plastered to his forehead and I knew I looked no different, but I wished so badly then to sketch him just as he was now. I hoped I would never forget this image, not even on the day I walked through the gates of Valhalla.

Hiei planted a hand on the floor to steady himself, the other lifting one of my legs to his shoulder, his firm grip wrapped around my thigh.

"I'm going to fuck you so hard you'll be limping tomorrow."

I smiled, the curl of my lips vicious. "I expect no less."

Hiei showed no mercy from the second he began, pulling out to the very tip and then slamming back in. He kept a bruising pace that made my legs quake and I could no longer help the sounds that came from my mouth, knowing I was being too loud but not able to stop. And Hiei reveled in it, "Yes, just like that, Etternia, let me hear you."

He pounded into me with no remorse, sliding us several inches across the floor, our bodies so soaked in sweat that it made the linoleum slippery.

Hiei sat up, gripping my hips and turning them sideways, my leg draped over his shoulder and neck, the angle forcing him in deeper. I cried out, rolling my hips to meet him thrust for thrust, hands scrabbling for purchase against the smooth floor and finding none.

When Hiei's thumb once again connected with my clit, rubbing in fast, erratic circles, it was my undoing.

I had never orgasmed so hard in my life, a scream tearing its way from my throat, I truly did feel as if I was coming apart at the seams, breaking to thoroughly abused pieces beneath Hiei's hands.

His pace quickened, his thrusts uneven but deep. He rung a second orgasm out of me on the heels of the first when his sex swelled, filling me up so completely that I would definitely feel the loss of him later. He panted my name, not the usual Etternia, but the one he never let slip. Ettie. Over and over.

He came with a loud snarl soon after, his fingers digging into my flesh, his cock buried to the hilt, chest heaving.

Magnificent, I thought. He was truly magnificent.

Spent, he pulled out and lowered himself down until he was laying beside me, an arm thrown over his face to cover his eyes.

I sat up on an elbow, cradling my head in one hand. "What's wrong?"

Hiei said nothing, but his breathing was still uneven and ragged. I ran a hand up his chest and to his face, cupping his cheek. Leaning over him now, I tugged at the arm he was hiding beneath.

"Are you upset you could not make me beg?" I asked when he refused to remove it.

"No," he replied, though his tone was stiff.

"Then, what? Have I done something wrong?"

A choked sound worked its way up his throat and out his mouth and a moment later I found myself crushed to his chest.

He placed a kiss at the crown of my head. "You have done nothing wrong," he said with conviction.

We laid like that for a long while, letting the sweat cool to our skin, and eventually Hiei slipped out from under me. He gathered his clothing and put them back on, making sure to keep his back to me.

"Go back to bed, Etternia. I will see you tomorrow."

Before I could protest, he was gone, flitting through the sliding door I'd left open in the other room, just as I often did on summer nights.

I padded back towards my bed, eyeing Yusuke who was still sprawled across it as if it were only for him. I crawled back in, nudging him until he moved over.

Once I was settled, he rolled over, curling his body around me and wrapping me in his arms.

"Did you two have fun?" he murmured into my skin, pressing a kiss to the back of my neck.

I shivered, though not because it was unpleasant.

"You heard us, did you?"

He chuckled. "I've got the same demon hearing as you do. And you weren't exactly quiet."

"You're not angry?"

"Why would I be? I thought we talked about all that a long time ago."

"You were right in the other room..."

Yusuke pressed closer and I couldn't ignore the undeniable arousal he dug into the crack of my ass.

"I'm so turned on right now, Ettie. I wanted to join so bad, but I knew if I interrupted Hiei would have kicked my ass."

I reached an arm behind me, gripping his sex and squeezing. "Well, I believe a reward is in order for you being so patient."

Yusuke squeezed one of my breasts and I felt when he grinned, his lips dragging across the back of my neck. "Damn right it is."

Hiei hadn't been wrong. I sure as hell wouldn't be able to walk tomorrow.

But only a minuscule part of me gave a single shit about it.


End file.
